Atlanta Falcons: They have $113 million committed toward a cap that is expected to be slightly more than $120 million. Don’t expect a free-agent frenzy from the Falcons, because they could use most of their cap room to re-sign cornerback Brent Grimes and left tackle Sam Baker. The Falcons won’t be getting much help from carry-over money, because they finished the 2012 season a league-low $425,000 under the cap.

Carolina Panthers: The new general manager will have his work cut out for him, because the Panthers have about $136 million committed to the cap. That number could be knocked down a bit, because the Panthers had $3.5 million in remaining cap space for 2012. But Carolina still is going to have to make some tough decisions on veterans like Chris Gamble, Jon Beason and DeAngelo Williams.

New Orleans Saints: The Saints have the NFL’s second-highest amount committed toward the 2013 cap at $138.5 million. Only the Jets ($142 million) are higher. The Saints can carry over about $2.4 million in space. It’s going to be a very challenging offseason, because left tackle Jermon Bushrod can become a free agent and the Saints might have to part ways with or restructure the contracts of veterans like Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Roman Harper and others.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Thanks to some shrewd moves just before the end of the 2012 season, the Bucs are in the best cap shape of any team in the NFC South. After restructuring the contracts of Vincent Jackson and Carl Nicks, the Bucs are sitting at about $96.3 million. They also should add some space when carry-over amounts are factored in before free agency starts in March, because they finished the 2012 season $8.5 million under the cap. However, some of that cap space could be taken up before March, because several players are believed to have triggered escalator clauses in their contracts that have yet to be factored in, and the Bucs are likely to try to re-sign defensive end Michael Bennett and defensive tackle Roy Miller before they can depart as free agents. The Bucs also could free up $7.75 million if they release cornerback Eric Wright, whose guarantee of that amount in base salary was voided when he was suspended for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances.

The Falcons can free up more cap space by giving Matt Ryan an extension, cutting players like Turner and Robinson.

If the Falcons have about $7 million in cap space, most of that could be eaten up if they choose to tag William Moore, as the number for safeties I think is around $6.3 or 6.5 million for the franchise tag.

The three players mentioned as possible cuts by the Panthers would all be interesting pickups if the Falcons were to go after them.

Beason would give us an everydown MLB. He's been oft-injured the past two years since signing his big contract, but given the rampancy of injuries in Carolina over the years, I'm starting to think that their training staffs just aren't that good. Think about it, Steve Smith, DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, Jordan Gross, Ryan Kalil, Thomas Davis, Beason, Chris Gamble, Jeff Otah, Kris Jenkins have all battled injuries over the years. Interesting enough that John Fox when he left to go to Denver prioritized getting a new trainer: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2012/1 ... ers-growth

Gamble, Williams, and Beason would be interesting pickups this off-season if the Panthers cut them loose, and the Falcons don't have to pay premium dollar for them...

Cutting Turner and Robinson should save us a good amount of space.An extension for Ryan should also create some cap space.Maybe talk an extension with Babineaux. 2013 will be the final year of his deal.

I'm a bit surprised the cap will only be a little over 120m.. seems a low estimate.

I'm also looking over the Saints contracts at rotoworld... WOW. The Saints will end up in some SERIOUS cap hell sooner rather than later.

When they signed the CBA after the lockout, I thought I always heard mentioned that they were expecting brand new growth come 2014 (IIRC due to new TV contract negotiations?) which would potentially dramatically increase the amount of cap space for teams due to the windfall of new cash. I know that was one of the points of contention that led to the length of the lockout because they could not agree on how to slice the bigger pie once that thing hit.

So I guess that might explain why the cap isn't expected to increase by that much.

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